1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a label printer for producing printed labels by sliding a movable blade so as to cut a long printing medium into pieces.
2. Description of Related Art
In a conventional label printer, it is needed to cut a long printing medium at the time of producing printed labels. As one type to be employed in such a cutter unit, for example, there is a sliding type in which a movable blade is slid to cut a printing medium along its width direction into pieces (for example, see Japanese laid-open patent publication No. 2002-86823).
On this regard, in this sliding type, at the time of cutting a printing medium into pieces, a movable blade is slid from its home position. In this sliding operation, the movable blade is moved to across the printing medium from its one side to the other side along the width direction. After this sliding operation is completed, in order to bring the movable blade into a state ready for the next cutting operation, a reverse sliding operation for returning the movable blade to its home position is performed. In the reverse sliding operation, the movable blade moves backward along the same path as of the sliding operation. Thus, there is a fear that, when the movable blade comes to pass across the cut surface of the printing medium, the movable blade is snagged on the cut surface of the printing medium and paper jam and the like of the printing medium occurs.
Further, in the sliding type, in order to cut a printing medium smoothly, a tension is applied to the printing medium. As a result of this application of tension, a thermal head is in press contact with a platen roller. By use of this press-contact state, for example, one end of the printing medium in its longitudinal direction is pinched, whereas the other end of the printing medium in its longitudinal direction is pinched by use of a paper discharge rollers. In this structure, since both ends of the printing medium in its longitudinal direction are held firmly, the printing medium can be cut smoothly by the sliding action of the movable blade. However, at this time, since the printing medium is fixed to be immobile, the cutting point of the movable blade concentrates on one point on the printing medium, causing the durability of the movable blade to degrade.
For the reasons described above, it is difficult to ensure the performance of movable blade in the sliding type.